Two individuals were taken to hospital following a two-truck collision on Highway 1 just west of Richer Monday afternoon.  

According to the RCMP, a dump truck was heading eastbound when it attempted to make a right-hand turn onto Road 42E. A semi-truck driving eastbound behind the dump truck then collided with it from behind and both ended up in the ditch. 

Richer Fire Chief Chris Wilkins says they attended the collision and were also helped by the Ste. Anne Fire Department and Dr. Hook Towing. 

“We had to extricate two individuals. One from one truck and the other from the other truck. The one truck, my members were able to get him out pretty quickly and the second truck took a lot longer because of the position that he was in and position that the vehicle was in and so that one took quite a bit longer.”  

According to Wilkins, the second extrication was very meticulous and took approximately two and a half hours to complete. 

RCMP say the 53-year-old male driver of the dump truck is from Steinbach and was transported to hospital by ground ambulance with non-life-threatening injuries. 

The 73-year-old male driver of the semi, from the RM of Whitemouth, was taken to the Health Sciences Centre by STARS Air Ambulance. RCMP say both men remain in hospital and are reported to be in stable condition. 

The initial call came in shortly after 2 PM Monday and Wilkins says his crew was on the scene until around 6:30 PM. He notes one of the trucks was empty but the other was carrying a load of potatoes.  

“Highway 1 was closed almost immediately and then they were closed for quite a bit longer after we left because Dr. Hook was there cleaning up the mess of vehicles and potatoes and all of that.”  

Wilkins says both eastbound lanes were closed for the entire time. Early on, he says that traffic was being routed down Dawson Road but eventually they decided to route both east and westbound traffic down the westbound lanes of Highway 1.